really high ammonia with coral

[EvanStorzuk]

I was gifted a coral as a present but my main tank isn’t cycled. I put the coral in a smaller tank with clean salt water, but I tested the ammonia recently and its around 1ppm and im really worried I am going to kill my buddy. I’ve already done a 50% water change and cleaned the filter. I got the filter used and I believe thats where the ammonia is coming from so I guess I just didn’t clean it well enough before. Anything else i can do to keep it healthy?

 

[Icryhard]

Corals consume ammonia in a higher rate than nitrate actually. You could technically have a tank without bacteria to convert to NO3 and your corals would still do well. I believe @Randy Holmes-Farley made a post about this. Please correct me if I’m wrong though

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Your tank does not have to be cycled for coral. In fact ammonia or ammonium precisely, is food for corals.

 

[brandon429]

I bet your main tank is cycled. What's the details/ did you use bottle bac

Api and other cheap kits constantly misread you can see by searches.


Thousands of fully cycled tanks show 1 ppm on api, that's the basis of false stall posts

How many days has your tank had water in it

What brand of bacteria did you use

 

[EvanStorzuk]

I bet your main tank is cycled. What's the details/ did you use bottle bac

Api and other cheap kits constantly misread you can see by searches.


Thousands of fully cycled tanks show 1 ppm on api, that's the basis of false stall posts

How many days has your tank had water in it

What brand of bacteria did you use

I havent used any bacteria in my main tank, just live rock. I started it maybe four or five days ago

 

[brandon429]

did that rock come from a pet store or was shipped to you from the ocean

 

[EvanStorzuk]

did that rock come from a pet store or was shipped to you from the ocean

I bought the rock off of fb marketplace. It's 20 years old from the ocean